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<title>100 Years to Live... Alone by RandoFando_Spoonie</title>
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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26050519">100 Years to Live... Alone</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandoFando_Spoonie/pseuds/RandoFando_Spoonie'>RandoFando_Spoonie</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>The Old Guard (Movie 2020)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Gen, Missing Scene, One-Shot, bar scene from Nicky's POV</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-08-22</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 10:00:41</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>General Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>547</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26050519</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/RandoFando_Spoonie/pseuds/RandoFando_Spoonie</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>My take on how and why The Old Guard comes up with Booker's 100 years alone.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Andy | Andromache &amp; Booker | Sebastien le Livre &amp; Joe | Yusuf al-Kaysani &amp; Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Andy | Andromache of Scythia &amp; Nile Freeman &amp; Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani &amp; Nicky | Nicolò di Genova, Booker | Sebastien le Livre &amp; Nile Freeman, Joe | Yusuf Al-Kaysani/Nicky | Nicolò di Genova</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>61</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>100 Years to Live... Alone</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/nasa/gifts">nasa</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>So this fic was largely inspired by a post by nasa (aka joeandnicky over on Tumblr), I’d been thinking of doing a fic about the bar scene their post about punishment not being just about the punished really spoke to me.</p><p>Any similarities to the works of other authors on this archive is purely coincidental; all works original.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p class="western">They're sitting at the bar, Joe and Nicky across from each other so they can see each other fully, Andy and Nile sit next to them, Booker is outside. It's decision time.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“I don't understand why we can't just let him apologize, he's obviously sorry for what he did.” Nile speaks softly, not sure she entirely has the right to be involved in the decision, she's so new.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“It's more complicated that than Nile.” Nicky replies softly, but his eyes betray his anguish, at least to Joe.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Nile nods and gets up, heading outside to talk to Booker, she knows, for now, it's between the three of them.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“Twenty-five years alone.” Andy hasn't spoken much since Merrick's offices, they know she's struggling.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“For each of us.” Nicky adds, “One hundred years total.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Joe blinks a few times, “Nicky?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“He betrayed us all, he may not have known Nile when it happened, we may not have known her but he was willing to let her go this alone in the train.” Nicky's eyes harden as he speaks. “Maybe it's the Catholic in me, but there has to be a price for him and time for us.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Andy frowns, sitting next to Nicky and she sighs, “It's a long time.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“It is. And it'll be hard in this world to entirely avoid him, but we have to have the time.” Joe reluctantly agrees, “Time to heal, to sleep at night not worried our position is going to be given away, that we're not going to wake up in chains.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Nicky nods, Joe gets him. “Exactly. Justice is never just about the person being punished, it's about their victims as well, proving that they matter, their pain matters. Booker was our brother in arms for two centuries, we trusted him, and he betrayed us. He took our love, our faith in him and made it meaningless.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Joe frowns, “He's always been miserable, I just thought that was Booker, but he didn't even ask us our opinions, he just offered us up to Copley like it meant nothing.”</p><p class="western"><br/>
“He took away our consent, our right to do with our bodies what we wanted. He <em>made</em> Joe and I watch each other be tortured. For over a day.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Andy takes a long drink and Nicky knows she swallowing past the lump in her throat, remembering England. She knows some wounds never fully heal and she nods.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“One hundred years then.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">“We'll meet him here one hundred years from today.” Joe agrees and Nicky nods.</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Nile comes back, looks between them, “You've decided?”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Andy nods, “We have. I'll tell him.”</p><p class="western"> </p><p class="western">Nicky watches Andy leave, his heart aching for her even under his own grief and pain and anger. She'll likely never see Booker again. He and Joe get up to follow Andy, Nile comes with them and they wait on the stairs. Nicky can't keep the pain off his face, the anger out of his eyes as he looks at Booker and so he turns away, follows Nile up the stairs when they leave. He knows Andy is behind him, Joe last. He and Booker were always so close, as angry as Joe is at his betrayal Nicky knows he'll stop, take one last look back. And then... the hundred years will begin.</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Feel free to follow me on Tumblr: RandoFando-Spoonie</p><p>As always, kudos aren't necessary but appreciated, comments too if you feel so inclined.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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